Cities of Violence Sacrifice Power & Urbaniza

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Cities of violenceSacrice,power and urbanization in the Andes

EDWARD R. SWENSONDepart ment of Anthropology,University of Chicago,USA

ABSTRACTSacrice and related forms of ritual violence were deeply rootedcultural practices in the Andes, fundamental principles of cosmologytha t framed conceptions of the natural and social wo rld and phenom-ena closely connected to the exercise of power. This article exploresthe intimate relat ionship between political pow er and ritual violenceby examining the institutionalization of social inequality and theproduction of urban landscapes in the Andes, focusing principally on

the Moche culture (AD 100750) and ea rlier polities of centra l andnorthern P eru. D rawing on theories of Ma urice B loch, data fromMesoamerica will then be analyzed to illuminate cross-culturalparallels of the signicance of sacralized violence in processes ofprehistoric urbanizat ion. U ltimately, a compara tive approach affo rdsa stronger analytical perspective in deciphering the striking inter-dependence of power and ritual homicide in the prehistory ofAmerican urba nism.

KEYWORDSAndes consumption dialectics Mesoamerica Moche power ritual sacrice urbanization violence

Journal of Social Archaeolog y A RT I C L E

256

Copyrigh t 2003 SAGE Publication s (ww w.sagepub lications.com)Vol 3(2):256296 [1469-6053(200306)3:2;256296;032578]
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257Swenson Cities o f violence

INTRODUCTION

The most prominent monument s of A ndean and Mesoamerican cities, such

as pyramid temples and ba llcourts, were elite a renas of ritual violence (Alvaand D onna n, 1993; C arrasco, 1999; Schele and M iller, 1986). Sa cred pow erfocused a t the center, or axis mundi , of the ritual complex was activated byelite directed rites of consumption deemed crucial for agricultural successand the reproduction of socio-cosmic order. Therefore early cities of theAndes often served as theaters of a highly controlled, socially encapsulatedviolence (Sw enson, 1998).

I propose that the intensication of asymmetrical power relationscomplicit in the development o f ma ny A ndean cities was linked to the social

circumscription and elaboration of consumptive sacricial rites. I hope todemonstrate this through a brief analysis of a rchitectural and iconographicevidence from centra l and northern P eru. Although ritual violence existedin many non-hierarchical cultures of South America presumably longbefo re the emergence of socia lly stra ti ed urba n society (H arris, 1977: 151;Redmond, 1994; Viveiros de Castro, 1992), its manipulation provided animportant mechanism for both the generation and subsequent insti-tutionalization of social inequality. These processes were fundamental tothe emergence of centralized polities. U ltimately, I will show tha t the

production of urban landscapes in the Andes wa s not only shaped by suchritual and ideological programs, but that these programs often played acritical role in the development of urban power relations more generally.

In this article, urbanism is employed liberally to refer to the concen-tration of monumental architecture, various economic and religiousservices, and related social infrastructures (Mumford, 1961). Certainly,urbanism can be dened according to different criteria, and it variedsignicantly in scale and sociopolitical organization throughout theAmericas (and the Andes). Cerro B lanco, the premier Moche urban centernea r Trujillo (C hapdela ine, 2001; Topic, 1982), w as economically andsocially more heterogeneous than Cuzco, which, although the seat of animmense empire, wa s in fact a relat ively small bastion o f the elite (Kolata,1997). U rba n-hinterland relat ions also differed considerably in the Andesand w ere fundamenta l to historic permutat ions of urban political organiza-tion (D illehay, 2001; I sbell, 1977a). A lthough it is analytically useful tomake distinctions betw een types of centers (see R ow e, 1963), be they econ-omically diverse urban settlements with large populations or the circum-scribed monuments of ceremonial centers, in this report urban broadlydescribes differing processes (or products) of socio-spatial centralization(Wheatley, 1971). Such an approa ch permits an improved understanding ofhow the construction of monumental space and convergence of differenti-ated and valorized services (religious, political, or economic) articulated


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258 Journal of Social Archaeo logy 3(2)

with ideological tra nsformations accompanying the development of d iffer-ent types of centers. In fa ct, social stra tica tion in the Americas wa s ofteninextricab ly linked to the recongura tion of space and a rchitectural forms

which can be related to hierarchical notions of center and periphery(Isbell, 1977b; Moore, 1996).It is also important to stress that urbanization in the prehistoric

Americas cannot be explained simply by manipulation of ritual violence.In fact, many of the rst proto-urban centers in the Pre-ceramic period ofcoastal P eru (20001800 B C ), chara cterized by the construction of monu-mental architecture, appear to have been non-stratied and based oncommuna l kinship structures (B urger, 1992; Moseley, 1975, 1982). More-over, the centrality of ritual violence was not universal a nd seems to havebeen lacking or peripheral at several emerging and later urban polities inthe Americas. Naturally, few w ould deny tha t there were multiple and over-lapping factors driving the development a nd ma intenance of urba n societyin the ancient Americas (Adams, 1966). Nevertheless, the striking preva-lence of institutionalized ritua l violence in both emerging and mature citiesthroughout the New World has been under-theorized and invites a moreprobing exploration of the relationship between sacrice and the urbanexperience. Coincidence alone fails to explain why centralization and hier-archization w ere accompanied by conspicuous displays of human sacricefrom C aho kia in North America to the Moche pyramidal cities of the North

C oast of Peru.

CONSUMPTIVE-REPRODUCTIVE POLITICALIDEOLOGIES IN THE ANDES

The reciprocal but asymmetrical relationship envisioned between theterrestrial and supernatural realms in many ancient Amerindian cultures

seems to have been predicated on a consumptive-reproductive dialectic,wherein human regeneration, agricultural fertility, and socio-cosmic ordernecessitated sacri ce, or to use Ma urice B lochs term, the consumption ofvita lity (B ata ille, 1988; B loch, 1992). In order for people to consume thebounty of earth provided by divine forces, the latter would need vitalnourishment in turn, including the consumption of humans themselves(B awden, 1996; C lendinnen, 1991; H icks, 1996; Schele a nd Miller, 1986).Those who could claim the exclusive right to contro l rituals of consumptivesocial and cosmic reproduction, who in a sense acted as surrogates of the

supernatural and consumed vitality and living beings by presiding oversacri cial ritual, were in a formidab le position to a ugment their status andsecure both religious and political power.

In other words, the asymmetrical relationship of reciprocity linking


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humanity and the supernatural wa s effectively tra nsposed to the terrestrialrealm, congealed and formalized in the construction of grandiose cer-emonial centers that the representatives of the divine successfully com-

missioned (Wheatley, 1971). H ence social different iat ion w as intensi ed byefforts to make political spheres reect relat ional dependencies dening theunion between the physical and transcendent w orlds.

Indeed, this theory is far from new and has enjoyed popularity amongsocial scientists of varied theoretical persuasions (Childe, 1946: 4850,Friedman a nd R ow lands, 1978: 211; G odelier, 1978; L ow ie, 1967: 68, 84:Mumford, 1961: 33, Turner, 1941: 1283; Wheatley, 1971; White, 1959: 314).In re-examining these ideas, I intend not to resurrect theocracy models orpromote a n exclusively idealist interpreta tion of histo rical process (Trigger,1993); instead my objective is to investigate power relations and the waysin which agents induced structural changes identiable in the materialrecord. Manipulation of religious practice constituted strategies differen-tially implicated in socioeconomic and political reorganizat ion a ccompany-ing the formation of hierarchical polities. The changing emphasis inarchaeology away from rigid ecological, functionalist, and exclusively insti-tutional analyses of sociopolitical transformation to one that examinesagentive relations of power represents an exciting turn in the discipline(Alcock, 1993; B rum el, 1992; Miller et a l., 1989; P aynter and McG uire,1991; Wylie, 1992). It is through an exploration of ritual practice and

competing ideologies that a more ho listic understanding of prehistory canbe achieved, one that does not privilege mechanical structural shifts oruniversal materialist developments.

Consumptive-reproductive world views constituted the philosophicalfounda tion of prehistoric Andean political theologies. In fa ct, the conceptprovides a powerful interpretive framework to explain Andean ritualviolence and ideological systems, one which transcends the limitations ofpurely functionalist, structuralist, or orthodox Marxist interpretations.Socia l scientists must pay heed to emic functionalist cosmovisions and how

ideological programs were embedded in or derived from these beliefsystems. Of course, as early as Tylor and Frazer, social scientists haverecognized the propitiatory and reproductive basis of sacricial ritual(D avies, 1981: 17, 489; Frazer, 1981; R obert son Smith, 1894; Tylor, 1889;Westermarck, 1906). However, more attention has been focused on prob-lemat ic etic functionalist interpreta tions (G irard , 1977; H arner, 1977;H arris, 1977; Sagan, 1993) than on the ma nipula tion of funda menta l cosmo-logical principles from which political ideologies were forged and socialinequalities legitimated. Functionalist theories of ritual violence have been

rightly criticized.1

H ow ever, functiona lism per se should not be systemat i-cally discarded, for it is precisely through the exploration of emic func-tionalist belief systems that power structures and ideological programs,subsuming cultura lly speci c regimes of political authority, can be properly


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understood. 2 It is certainly revealing, for instance, that in many nativeanthropologies, such as the Chinese Book of Rites, explanations ofsacrice sound strikingly D urkheimian (G irard , 1977: 8).

G enerative violence and the essence of production through consump-tion symbolically inhere in both dualism and reciprocity fundamentaltenets de ning the social in the A ndes (B astien, 1992: 154; D over, 1992: 8;Netherly and D illehay, 1986; R ostw orowski, 1999; Z uidema, 1990). P rin-ciples of Andean dualism are often seen as dialectical; the universe issuffused with opposing, dangerous, but benecent forces whose mediationis central to ritual, kinship structure, social reproduction, and economicpractice (B awd en, 1996; I sbell, 1977b; Netherly, 1984; Sa lomon and U rioste,1991). In fact, the Hegelian idealist dialectic (thesis, antithesis, synthesis)itself involves a metaphorical process of consumption wherein trans-formation (mediation, negation) progressing to the spirit is symbolicallyviolent o r desta bilizing in nature (D esmond, 1992: 1956). I t w as emphat i-cally so for Marx (mainly his not ion of class struggle), which reveals intrigu-ing cross-cultural parallels in conceptualizations of transformationalprocesses, whether social or natural, material or spiritual. The crucixionin Christian salvation, creator-destroyer deities in the Hindu pantheon(Kali, D urga), and sacri cial cosmogonies in the Vedas (such as the PurusaSukta) provide additional parallels of the catalytic role of violence ingenerative processes (Fenton et al., 1988: 7, 545, 1012). The suffering

at tendant a t childbirth (labor) is perhaps a source of obvious metaphors forsuch dia lectica l thinking, especially relating to concepts of fertility (B ell,1997: 96).

The idiom of violence, both metaphorical and real, permeated manyaspects of Andean life, philosophy, and cosmology. Sacrice was (andcontinues to be) a pivotal concept, structuring aspects of social relations,economic exchange, mythology, feasting, huaca worship, and the spatio-symbolic production of t he built environment (B urger, 1992; R ost-worow ski, 1996; Sa lomon a nd U rioste, 1991: 1619). 3 For instance, the

origin of no urishing crops in the mythology of P achacamac, the most vener-ated coastal deity in late prehistory, exemplies the pre-eminence ofsacrice in Andean cosmovisions; the murder of Vichma (Pachacamacsinfant brother) and the sowing of his body parts by the deity introducedfood to the world (Rostworowski, 1992: 28).

An ethos of reciprocity was fundamenta l to Andea n social relations andeconomic organization. The sponsorship of generous feasts in the Inkamita , or labor tax, obscured exploitative extraction of surplus as a recip-rocal relation between the Inka state and conscripted workers (Patterson,

1991). In fact, reciprocity can be readily analogized to sacrice, or sacricecollapsed into not ions of reciproca l obligation (G odelier, 1999). PierreB ourdieu (1977, 1994) recognized the meta phorical violence in gifting,describing such exchange and relations of debt as a form of symbolic


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violence which is directly transferable to economic forms of domination.In a sense, gifting corresponds to sacri ce, while the return or ma nipulationof its expecta tion (debt) corresponds to reproduction.

Ritualized exchange is at times indivisible from violence as exempliedby the famous potlatch (status battle feasts) of the Pacic North Coast (aceremony which became distorted and exaggerated as a result of earlycolonialism and the introduction of E uropean commodities) (G odelier,1999; Ma uss, 1990). I t is peculiar tha t M auss, the great turn o f the centurytheorist of both the gift and sacrice, did not stress the importance ofsacrice as an expression or simile of gift exchange (as did Westermarck[1906], R obertson Smith [1894], and o thers). H ubert a nd M auss (1964)assert that sacrice serves rst and foremost to establish communionbetween the human and divine (Valeri, 1985), and they overlook notionsof dependence and relational obligations, concepts fundamenta l to sacricein the Americas. 4

In the representat ional a rt o f prehistoric Andea n society, the pervasiveiconography of violence, predation, and sacrice, juxtaposed or conatedwith symbols of a gricultural fertility a nd cosmic regeneration, a ttest to thecrucial role that sacralized violence and ideologies of reproductive-consumption played in Andean prehistory. The pan-Andean cult of thefeline, as well as the ubiquitous iconographic depictions of trophy headcults, human sacrice, ritualized warfare, and ferocious fanged deities,

provide examples of the primacy of this ideology in Andean politicalculture from the Initial Period to Inka times (1800 B CAD 1500) (B enson,1972a, 1972b, 1974, 1998; B enson and C oo k, 2001; B urger, 1992; C ordy-Collins, 1990, 1998; Kan, 1972; Lathrap, 1982; Moser, 1974; Proulx, 1971;Saunders, 1998). The discovery of human sacri ce in varied contexts of thearchaeological record of the Andes further supports this view (Bourget,1995, 2001; Cordy-Collins, 2001; Verano, 2001).

The consumptive-reproductive basis of Moche religious ideology isunderscored by the associat ion of the ubiquitous fanged deity with sacri ce

and ritual homicide. This Moche deity, adopted from the Cupisnique(1500300 BC ) and Chavn tra ditions (900300 B C), is often show n onmodeled and ne-line ceramics with mountains the traditional Andeanabode of the gods, source of water, fertility and life, as well as themeta phoric space of huma n sacrice (B astien, 1978; B enson, 1972a;H ocq uenghem, 1989: 183; Sa lomon and U rioste, 1991; U ceda , 2001). I n fact,Moche adobe temple pyramids are thought to mimic the telluric and super-na tural forces of the sierras (B awden, 1996: 72, 135, 157; U ceda , 2001). Inone striking mo deled ceramic vessel (D onna n, 1978: 147), a human victim

lies supine over a phallic mountain peak, which likely symbolizes fertility,and her hair, or possibly blood, ows down the mountain peak as arepresentation of the life-giving and alpine-derived water required forirrigat ion agriculture on the desert North C oast (Figure 1). The water wa s


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Figure 1 Photograph of Moche ceramic vessel depicting a sacricial scenein a stylized mounta in set ting (Donna n, 1978: 147) (courtesy o f ChristopherDonnan and the Sta at liche Museen zu Berlin Preussischer KulturbesitzEthnologisches Museum)


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Figure 2 Map of Peru illustrating principal archaeolog ical sites discussed inthe art icle (ad ap ted from Burger, 1992: 26)


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emphasizes how the centers architecture reveals that power asymmetrieswere congured on ritual privilege and socio-spatial segregation.

Although direct evidence of human sacri ce is wanting, the ubiquity ofpredato ry and shamanistic iconography in the centra l precinct of H uaca d elos Reyes reveals the signicance of consumptive-reproductive ideologies

in the ceremonial programs of the early settlement. The evidence fromCaballo Muerto suggests that privileged control of ritual practice centeredon reproductive violence wa s integral to the consolida tion of Moche urbansociety hundreds of years later.

Many of the earliest monumenta l complexes tha t a rose on the Peruviancoast and sierras are distinguished by iconography laden with violentimagery (B urger, 1992). 5 P rominent ceremonial centers of the Initial P eriod(1800 B C600 B C), freq uently consisting of U -shaped structures fra minglarge conjoined plazas, are characterized by elaborate summit-top

enclosures often adorned with painted adobe friezes of fanged, predatorysupernatura ls (including jaguars and spiders clutching trophy heads, amongother relat ed themes) (B urger, 1992: 96). R estricted summit chambersladen with violent imagery at massive sites such as G ara gay (R imac),

Figure 3 Architectural plan of Huaca d e Los Reyes in Caballo Muerto, MocheValley,Peru (adapted from Pozo rski, 1980: 26)


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Figure 4 Photo graph of stone sculpture dep icting a mutilated victim from

Cerro Sechin, Casma Valley,Peru.(Source: photog raph by author)


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Carda l (Lurn), and P ampa de las Llamas Moxeke (Ca sma), all located onthe desert coast of central Peru, could only have been occupied or evenseen by privileged individua ls (B urger, 1992; Fung P ineda , 1988; Mo seley,

1992; Pozorski, 1987).Iconography expressing an underlying ideology of ritual violence isclearly exemplied by the Initial Period temple site of Cerro Schin (1500BC) in the Casma Valley (Samaniego et al., 1982) of the central NorthCoast, Peru. Here adobe friezes within summit chambers of the oldestconstruction of the site depict a black feline and a sacricial scene of ahuman wearing a loincloth plummeting headrst with blood owing froma truncated skull. Cerro Sechn is also famous for its stone carvings, incor-porated into the retaining wall surrounding the main precinct of the site,depicting erce warriors and a ghastly array of mutilated victims (Figure4). The dismembered gures wear the same loincloth as the sacriced indi-vidual of the ado be frieze, while the wa rriors are portra yed with elongat edfeline eyes which are markedly different from the round, gouged socketsof the mutilated victims (Kan, 1972: 70). It is possible that the shaman-wa rriors of C erro Sechn exercised political pow er by assuming the role ofpredatory felines in rituals of combat, sacrice, and consumptive-repro-duction. 6 Although the central court of Cerro Sechn could have held aconsiderable number of individuals, its central precinct (adorned with thesacricial scene) is especially narrow and would have been accessible only

to distinguished o f ciants.Chavn de Huantar in the Callejn de Conchucos of the Cordillera

B lanca (B urger, 1992), the highland ceremonial center de ning the E arlyH orizon P eriod, further suggests tha t a ccess to ritual power wa s restrictedto a hieratic few and that incipient social stratication was rst conguredon religious authority. That is, the ea rliest evidence for inequality (U ra-barriu phase) is inferred from restricted access patterns within the massivetemple structures rather than from disparities in funerary contexts ordomestic architecture (B urger, 1992: 164). The snarling feline-deity of the

La nzon monument, found in a small, cruciform, and subterranean chamberin the centra l axis of the U -shaped New Temple, reveals the exclusive andspecialized nature of politico-ritual practices a t this premier center (B urger,1992: 137). Moreover, the numerous tenon heads representing sequentialframes of shamanistic metamo rphosis into fanged felines demonstra te thecentrality o f violent tra nsformation in the religious programs of C havn deH uanta r. The image of a f anged a nthropomorphic being holding a b leedingdecapitated head was also found in Yurayacu, 5 km from Chavn (Burger,1992: 164).

Signicantly, such iconographic displays in the highlands and coast ofPeru are a dominant symbolic theme during the Initial Period and EarlyHorizon despite architectural, temporal, and cultural differences betweenvarious regions and specic sites. Although the violent imagery may very


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well have been related to specic cosmologies or related mythic histories,its widespread distribution suggests shared ideological frameworks basedon consumptive-reproductive world views. It is unlikely a coincidence that

centralizat ion and the emergence of violent iconography accompanied therise of agriculture during the Initial Period, which no doubt fostered new social anxieties and the reconceptualization of consumption, production,and notions of fertility. Interestingly, little evidence of human sacrice hasbeen documented in formative Peruvian contexts. Cut and gnawed humanbones found in refuse at the ceremonial center of Pacopampa in northernP eru suggest r itua listic canniba lism (B urger, 1992: 1089). Three decapi-tated bodies were also found beneath the oor of a destroyed temple inShillacoto in the U pper H uallaga dra inage (B urger, 1992: 118). Whetherthe iconic celebration of violence accompanying the rise of these proto-urban centers reects a more metaphorical than real focus on violentceremony is dif cult to a scerta in. D espite likely continuity in certa in ideo-logical themes focusing on generative violence between Initial P eriod andMoche political theologies, they were unquestionably different in manyimportant respects (possibly including differential emphasis on humansacrice). Nevertheless, social monopolization of ritual programs focusingon sacricial themes, rst evident in the Initial Period, was an enduringcharacteristic of Moche political structures.

THE PRIMACY OF RITUAL VIOLENCE IN MOCHE URBANSOCIETY AND POLITICO-RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGIES

The ceremonial character of Moche urbanism is evident from the massivepyramidal pla tfo rm mounds (reaching 40 m high in places) which dominateMo che centers (Shima da , 1994) (Figure 5). B awden notes (1996: 157): Theplatform visually signied the linkage of Earth, sky, and humanity, thecontrol of life-giving water, and the connection between the natural and

supernatural duality of Andean experience. It thus became a supremelypotent setting for rituals and the individuals who conducted them. More-over, the pyramid mound served a s a stage of sacra lized violence and phys-ically materia lized Moche politico-religious ideology (D eMa rra is et al.,1996).

A rich corpus of art and iconography reveals that Moche power struc-tures were founded o n religious autho rity and monopolization o f communi-cation with the supernatural. In fact, it seems likely that the privilegedcontrol of elite cycles of warfare, prisoner capture, and ceremonies of

human sacrice constituted the basis of Moche political relations (Alva,1988; A lva a nd D onna n, 1993; B awd en, 1996). As B awd en (1996) ha sargued, political power in Moche society was in many ways indistinguish-able from ritual performance. 7


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Moche iconography has been shown to represent several well-denedand limited themes which a re replicat ed in various media and in a varietyof d ifferent a rra ngements (D onnan, 1978: 15873; Quilter, 1997). One ofthese, the so-called P resentat ion Theme (D onna n, 1978) or Sa criceCeremony (Alva and D onna n, 1993; B aw den, 1996), represents a complexceremony involving warfa re, a procession of prisoners, sacri ce, the presen-tation of a goblet of blood to the fanged deity or his representative, and aconsistent cast of supporting characters. It is considered to be the centraland most important ritual of the Moche politico-religious complex. TheSacrice Ceremony was conducted in a pyramid precinct, where boundprisoners, presumably taken in warfare, were sacriced and their bloodceremonially presented to distinctively dressed and masked ofciants(B awden, 1996: 1523).

The Presentation Theme represented on ne line Moche pottery and

adobe murals points to the centrality of sacrice in Moche ideology. Thediscovery of adobe friezes of the Sacrice Ceremony in the main precinctof ceremonial centers, including the pyramidal structure of Paamarca inthe Nepea Valley and on walls of the magnicent platform structure ofH uaca E l B rujo in the Chicama Valley (Franco et al., 1994), stronglysuggests that Moche urban monuments were designed and used as vehiclesof violent ritual. It is signicant that the protagonists of the PresentationTheme are important actors in other scenes scenes which clearly makeup portions of an integrated mythological and ideological narrative

(Q uilter, 1997). O n ceramic vessels, for example, the warrior priest (or theincarnation of the fanged deity) is frequently shown seated on a daispresiding over a procession of bound naked prisoners with erect phalli(possibly signifying the reproductive goa ls of consumptive violence), while

Figure 5 Photo g raph of the a dobe pyramid o f Huaca del Sol, Moche Valley,Peru. (Source: photo g raph by author)


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scenes appearing in the periphery usually depict mythical or na tura l preda-to rs slitt ing captives thro at s (Figure 6). The prisoners are clearly w arriors,for their distinctive attire is heaped into piles or strung on the war clubs ofthe victors.

Ritual warfare is an integral stage of the Sacrice Ceremony; not onlyare prisoners of wa r shown to be the ma in sacricial victims, but depictionsof battle scenes between Moche warriors, common on ne-line ceramicsand wa ll murals, are o ften directly a ssociated w ith the P resentat ion Theme.Like the Aztec owery w ars (C lendinnen, 1991), Moche wa rfare a pparentlyaimed not to immediately kill enemies but to capture victims for latersacri ce. Indeed, only one ba ttle scene show s a slain enemy a t a ll (Moser,

1974: 30). Warriors are usually portrayed ghting in pairs with the victorseizing the vanq uished by the hair (B enson, 1972a: 46). Moreover, the dressof the soldiers, including ear spools and ornate armor depicted in ceramicart , indicates that wa r was ideally an elite pursuit.

Signicantly, most representations of Moche warfare on ne-lineceramics involve batt les between Moche groups and ra rely between Mo cheand foreign polities; in the few instances where foreign adversaries doappear, they are usually identied as belonging to the enigmatic Recuayculture of the north-centra l highlands (B awden, 1996; Wilson, 1987).

Moche warriors are distinguished by loose shirts, kilts made of metalplaques or reeds, a conical helmet with a crescent ornament, a belt, a roundshield or sling, and most importantly, a large phallic club (again suggestinga connection betw een dea th/violence and genesic forces), their principal

Figure 6 Iconographic representa tion from a Moche neline ceramic of aprocession of naked prisoners bearing litt ers and awaiting sacrice.Anthropomo rphized a nimals are sacricing bound ca ptives in the upperright-hand marg in o f the illustration (from the American Museum o f NaturalHisto ry, New York. Adapted from Alva a nd Donnan, 1993: 131)


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wea pon (B enson, 1972a: 456). O f course, depictions of elite warfa re donot necessarily signal the prohibition of lower class groups from partici-pating in combat. Indeed, success in war may have been an important

means of social mobility. What is emphasized is the consistent iconographicassociation of both divinity and elite status with warfare and sacricialviolence. It is also noteworthy that real war aimed at devastating rivalsand usurping economic and demographic resources played a critical role inMoche prehistory, most notab ly in the conquest of the southern valleys atthe onset o f the Moche I I I P eriod (B awd en, 1996; Shimada, 1994; Wilson,1987). The way in which such militarism differed from combat related tothe Sacrice Ceremony is difcult to assess. Wars of conquest may havebeen propelled and legitimated as ritually reproductive acts, especially interms of seized surplus and the prestige gained by ruling elites, presidingdeities, and the polity a s a w hole.

The consistent setting of Moche depictions of warfare, in regionsremoved from the fertile, irrigated, and populated zones of the lowervalleys, further indicates the ritualized nature of Moche militarism. Assuggested by the consistent appearance of cacti in battle scenes, war wasstaged either in the chaupi yunga zone, a liminal region midway betweenthe highlands and the lowlands, or in the vicinity of uncultivated coastalhills (Alva and D onnan, 1993: 129; Wilson, 1988: 340). O f co urse, thecommon depiction o f hills and cacti in Moche ba ttle scenes may ha ve been

more a metaphorical than literal representat ion of t he ecological setting ofcombat. In fact, the cacti might be a reference to San Pedro cactus, animportant hallucinogenic agent of shamans in Andean prehistory andamong contemporary curanderos of the Peruvian North Coast (Bawden,1996: 67; B urger, 1992; Jora lemon and Sharon, 1993). C learly, eitherinterpretat ion underscores the religious constitution o f Moche warfa re.

The fact that fortications were rare and situated not between indepen-dent Moche polities (at least prior to the nal and tumultuous Moche VPeriod) but at upper valley junctures, presumably as protection from

outsiders who did not embrace Moche political ideology, further suggeststhe r itua lized character o f Moche w arfa re (Topic, 1982: 262; Topic andTopic, 1987). Indeed, wa rfa re amo ng the Moche appea rs to have beenhighly formulaic and regulated by strict religious conventions and protocol;it clearly represented a critical stage in the Moche sacricial complex.

The notion that the Presentation Theme and related narratives of thissacricial complex were not simply depictions of myth and supernaturalevents but were in fact actively practiced or re-enacted by elite membersof Moche society wa s con rmed by the discovery of the spectacular b urials

at Sipn in the Lambayeque Valley and the burial at San Jos de Moro inthe Jeq uetepeq ue in the 1980s (Alva , 1988; A lva and D onna n, 1993;D onnan, 1988; D onnan and C astillo, 1992, 1994). The individua ls of thelavish burials at Sipn and San Jos de Moro have been condently


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identi ed a s protagonists of the P resentat ion Theme, including the FangedG od a nd the ma sked bird priestess. For instance, the warrior priest o f Sipnwears the same metal backaps, conical crescent helmet, bracelets, and

crescent nose-piece and was buried with the characteristic sacricial gobletand companion dog.The implication is that political authority in Moche society was in large

part de ned by the control and enactment of ritual violence. The lavish andextraordinary character of the Sipn and San J os de Moro burials, interredwith ceramic and meta l artifa cts suffused w ith symbols of fertility, duality,cosmic balance, and especially predatory violence and sacrice (Alva andD onna n, 1993), indicat es that Moche leaders were considered sacred rulers,and tha t their centers were designed as instruments of pow er, grounded inspectacles of ritual homicide. The recent discovery of tortured sacricialvictims associated with the adobe platform mounds of Huaca de La Lunain the Moche Valley and a t the ceremonial site of C ao Viejo in the C hicamaValley substantia tes this view (B ourget, 1995; Verano, 2001).

RITUAL VIOLENCE, POWER AND SOCIOPOLITICALTRANSFORMATION

Archaeo logists interested in the relation betw een wa rfare and sociopoliti-cal change in the Americas have underestimated the ritualized tenor of w arin both Mesoamerica and in the Andes. The notion that a sacred violence,integrated into the larger system of religious practice and belief in theAndes, could be a causative factor of sociopolitical change is often ignored,despite considerable archaeological evidence suggesting that a rituallyembedded violence, including warfare, existed in both regions before theinception of strat ied society a nd urban social fo rmations. Indeed, I proposethat in the Central Andes (and the Peruvian North Coast in particular),

violence in the form of warfare over scarce resources (a traditionally econ-omistic hypothesis elevating factors of demographic stress; see Carneiro,1970; D aggett , 1987; Pozorski, 1987; Webster, 1977; Wilson, 1987, 1988) wasoften no t a s signicant to the development of social strat icat ion, politicalinequality, and proto-urban centers in Peru as was the social manipulationand elaboration of a highly ritualized violence originating from Andeancosmological and religious principles. Although I place violence centerstage in an analysis of Andean urbanizat ion, I see it not merely as a responseto demographic and economic pressures but rather as a culturally mediated

and ideologically delineated variable of social and political t ransformation.Ma urice B loch, in his seminal work Prey into H unter : The Poli tics of Religious E xperience (1992), identies striking structural resemblances ina cross-cultural array of different liminal rituals which focus on a


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consumptive-reproductive cycle for instance, initiation ceremonies,sacrice, marriage, spirit mediumship, and so forth. The cycle begins witha consumption of vita lity, often in the fo rm of sacralized violence (or in a

metaphorical fo rm of violence such as a shamanistic trance), and concludeswith w hat B loch calls rebounding violence, in which a lost but augmentedvitality fro m the outside is reincorporated to achieve the ultimate ritua l goalof reproduction.

B lochs compelling construction of liminality differs from tha t of VanG ennep (1960) and Turner (1967). The lat ter two contend that liminal ritesenta il an initial a nd single stage of violence (such as circumcision, seclusion,symbolic death, etc.) which permits initiates or shaman mediums tocommune with transcendenta l forces, while the third stage, the reintegra tioninto the social world of the here and now, is seen as a return to theconditions of the profane world. B loch, however, duly recognizes a tw o-foldprocess of violence in liminal experiences; the third stage of reintegrationinto the social world is achieved through a rebounding violence, whereinan aggressive and rebounding consumption of vitality is necessary toreplace and augment vitality lost and discarded during the initial stage ofthe ritual (B loch, 1992: 6). In o ther w ords, B loch argues that the initial stageof violence entails the conquest of the vita l by the transcendental a nd tha ta return to the social world can only be realized through the reincorpor-ation of a lost but different and exterior vitality (since life in the human

world necessitates a visceral vitality). Nevertheless, the transcendentalelement remains dominant, and the initiate o r shaman is forever altered, abeneciary of divine favor a nd a more powerful member of society.

B loch argues that the innate rebo unding violence of liminal religiousexperience is a source of considerable power which directly inuencespolitical relations in many societies (B loch, 1992). He shows tha t expan-sionist violence against neighbors or even the domination of one group overanother are manifestations of rebounding violence, thus revealing thepotentia l pow er inherent in the contro l of consumptive-reproductive ritual.

I suggest that it may have been the monopolization of sacricial ritual,and the attendant power such liminal rites and rebounding violencebestow ed o n religious specia lists, which explains the emergence of religiouselites and the development of particular urban social formations on theAndean North C oast by the Moche P eriod. Surely ecological and economicvariables of sociopolitical change cannot be discounted, and struggles tomono polize or manipulate religious practice may very well have been inter-woven with materialist and environmental factors. I simply stress that thesearch for human agency in processes of sociopolitical transformation

demands an examination of the role of ceremony and ritual performance.In light of evidence from the pre-Moche sites of Caballo Muerto, CerroSechn, and Chavn de Huantar that power asymmetries originated fromritual exclusion, it seems ra ther compelling tha t the contro l of sacrice and


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rebounding violence played a signicant role in the emergence of central-ized polities on the North Coast of Peru, culminating in the dramaticpolitical theology of the Moche. Militaristic raids and involuted cycles of

elite directed ritual warfare and sacrice were certainly manifestations ofrebounding violence, as was the rea f rmation o f elite status and domination.Therefore, Andean cities of the Peruvian No rth C oa st can be understoo d

as arenas of socially restricted, consumptive violence. The ceremonialcenter as a cosmogram (Eliade, 1957; Kolata, 1993, 1997; Wheatley, 1971),as an ordering principle conferring meaning to the human world, and a s amaterialized and na turalized testament of a symmetrical pow er, pivoted onviolence; it w as sacrice and restricted cont rol of rebounding violence tha tnot only constituted t he authority of elites in ceremonial centers but in factactivated the center itself. The pyramid mounds and adobe precincts ofMoche urban landscapes were largely the product of these religious andideological programs.

SACRIFICE, REBOUNDING VIOLENCE AND THEPRODUCTION OF URBAN LANDSCAPES IN PREHISTORICAMERICA

Violence in urban society is most often analyzed at the level of class orsectarian conict (see Fumagalli, 1994: 3946, for a discussion of violencein the Italian medieval city) or in terms of institutional and militaristiccoercion w ielded to enfo rce the brute dominance of the elite. Foucault, forinstance, reveals how the built form of the city and city institutions (suchas prisons, hospitals, schools etc.) perpetuate, naturalize, and reinforce directly or obliquely through violent means the hegemony of thedominant class (Foucault, 1980: 5562, 14665).

These approaches are essential to a proper understanding of urbanism

both contextually and cross-culturally. However, most theoreticians inter-ested in the violent dimensions of the city lose sight of the ritualized andideologically reproductive forms of violence which were integral not onlyto the physical construction of urba n space in prehispanic America but a lso,more importantly, to the maintenance of asymmetrical power relationswhich socially dened the urban experience (Carrasco, 1999). ManyMesoamerican and A ndean cities were founded on the institutionalizationof ritual violence; ballcourts, pyramids, and temple platforms were builtrst and foremost to stage and encapsulate spectacular rites of sacricial

violence, rituals which formed the ideological core of elite authority andpolitical domination. 8

The examples presented below serve to identify conceivable cross-cultural and cross-temporal parallels in the role of ritual violence in urban


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politics throughout the prehisto ric Americas. Of course, a single framew orkto account for the complex ideological and political meanings of ritualviolence in such varied societies is inevitably reductive. Moreover, analog-

ical projection 1500 years into the past or between distinct cultures isfraught with peril and invites understanda ble criticism. Indeed, there weresigni cant differences underlying notions of sacri ce and autho rity amo ngthe various societies considered in the comparison. For instance, humansacrice was certainly more marginal in Inka conceptions of the urbanexperience and in the constitution o f elite autho rity than in earlier Mochesociety. 9

The ultimate purpose and utility of the analogies are to stress thatsacrice predicated on reproductive power (cosmic, political, andeconomic) of ten fueled elite political rela tions and ideo logically sanctionedautho rity. This is evident in the I nka C apa cocha, in which the sacri ce of afamily member conferred title and prestige on the donor. Such notions ofsacri ce also resoundingly underscored the political theology of Aztec andMaya elite society. It is this para llel which I highlight, a para llel not meantto obscure the pronounced differences in scale and nuanced meanings ofritual violence in the remarkably distinct urban systems considered below.Whether or not the rebounding violence and reproductive sacricenotable in these different urban societies can be effectively transposed toexplain the emergence of socially stratied, proto-urban milieus in

Formative Period Peru is perhaps impossible to determine. The examplesdemonstrate, however, that rebounding violence, understood ritually, mili-ta ristically, and economically, wa s a formidab le force in later urban politicsin both Mesoamerica a nd to a lesser extent in the Inka rea lm. It is temptingto view the ma nipulation of structurally similar forms of generative violenceand rebounding violence by aspiring elites as having been instrumental tothe actual development of many early socially-stratied centers in southcentral Peru.

The Inka CapaccochaAlthough human sacrice did not play as instrumental a role in the Inkapolitico-religious system as it did in Moche elite ideology, the ritual of theCapaccocha (Capac hucha ), which usually marked the accession of a new Inka king or the beginning or end of the agricultural year (McEwan andVan de G uchte, 1992; Schobinger , 1991; Z uidema , 1977), nonethelessreveals the importance of consumptive-reproductive ideologies andrebounding violence in the constitution o f I nka power. E lites who resided

in communities outside of Cuzco would send their most beautiful childrento the Inka capital in peregrinations over strictly dened routes to bepresented to the Sa pa I nka. Aft er feasting and ceremony in the main squareof Cuzco, the young children would depart on another procession. At


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sacred loci along the processional route, the children would be sacriced(oft en via live burial) (McE wa n and Van de G uchte, 1992; R einhard , 1999).These important geographical sites included ritually charged huacas or

sacred features of the socialized landscape, such as mountains associatedwith a deity or supernatural pow er. The ritual not o nly reaf rmed the auth-ority of the Inka elite, it also appeased the deities and kept the cosmic andterrestrial realms in balance (Zuidema, 1977). Its most important goal,however, was to ensure the health of the reigning king and to strengthenties between center and periphery (McE wa n and Van de G uchte, 1992).The procession of Capaccocha children along strictly prescribed routescharged the landscaped and ritually bound the conquered territories to t hecapital (McE wa n and Van de G uchte, 1992).

P erhaps more signicant ly, the Capaccocha also a ugmented the prestigeand status of t he sponsor or father of t he sacri cial victim. For instance, asixteenth century Spanish document reveals tha t the Inka emperor sent onesponsor, Ca que Poma, lord of the village of Ocros in central Peru, a wo odenstool, the material expression of his newly awarded lordship, in exchangefor his daughters sacri ce (McE wan and Van de G uchte, 1992: 362). Thuslocal elites beneted materially, spiritually, and politically by offering theirchildren to the sun or other important huaca divinities. That is to say, theinitial consumption o f vita lity wa s manifested in the obvious identi cationof the father with his daughters sacri ce, while reproductive power took

the form of the completion of the rite, which empowered the father andbrought him status and authority (a symbolic form of rebounding violence)(B loch, 1992). Moreover, the rebounding violence of the Capaccocha wasmanifested through the ritual consolida tion and rea f rmat ion of the powerand dominance of Cuzco and its elites over the conquered territories.Capaccocha offerings of mummi ed children have recently been discoveredat importa nt mounta in peak shrines at various sites in the Andes (McEwa nand Van de G uchte, 1992; R einhard , 1999).

Ritual violence and urbanism in MesoamericaIn the case of Aztec political culture, in which one nds the most notori-ous and ghastly example of institutionalized ritual homicide in history, it isevident that a consumptive, generative violence constituted the ethos ofauthority and framed the physical and symbolic conceptualization of theMexica A tepetl (Carrasco, 1999). For the Aztec, authority derived fromcontrolling, manipulating, and recasting in hierarchical framework con-sumptive-reproductive belief systems (B erdan, 1982; B ata ille, 1988;

Clendinnen, 1991; Hicks, 1996: 270).Clendinnen (1991) explains that emblazoned in the psyche of partici-pants in Mexica ritual (elite, commoner, sacricer, and victim alike), wasthe notion that in order for the world to bring forth fruit, it must be kept


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in motion through the payment of debt or tequitl (literally meaning dutyor debt in Nahua tl) in the form o f human sacrice to the gods. Therefore,a reciprocal relationship between the cosmic and terrestrial realms was

envisioned, incorporating humans in a vegetal-cosmic cycle: esh wasanalogized to maize and blood to water. The consumptive sacrice of ahuman would nourish the gods (human hearts were believed to feed thesun god as he traveled his daily course across the heavens) and ensure thatE arth w ould likewise feed humanity. Hence, warfare ( owery w ars) wascona ted w ith fecundity, in tha t the capture of prisoners provided victimsfor sacrice whose death and consumption served as the source of humanregeneration, cosmic renewal, and agricultural fertility.

The Templo Mayor (the great pyramid at Tenochtitln; Carrasco, 1999:4987; Matos Moctezuma, 1984), which housed on its summit the twintemples dedicated to H uitzilopochtli, the tribal god o f w ar, a nd Tlaloc, godof rain and fructifying waters, represented the materialization of thisdialectic of production and consumption underpinning Aztec cosmology,religion, and politics. This surely represents one of the most brilliant andobvious juxtapositions of consumption and production, violence andfertility, death and regeneration, as well as a compelling statement of thecentral importance that reciprocal obligations transacted through thecatalyst of consumptive violence played in ideal systems of natural, social,and cosmic order. In effect, the monumental core of the great

city of Tenochtitln was a stage dedicated to violence, from which thecosmic legitimacy of Aztec political power ultimately derived (Carrasco,1999).

Notions of tequitl also structured the sociopolitical and economic systemof the Aztecs. The commoner or macehuali class was in a position of tequitl to t he elites, expected to pay tribute to the ruling class in exchange fo r land a relationship which paralleled the human-divine bonds of tequitl .Although members of the lower classes, such as pochteca merchants,partook in rituals of human sacrice (Clendinnen, 1991), ritual violence in

the form of an interconnected system of warfare and sacrice was usuallythe prerogative of t he Aztec elite, the tlatoani and his entourage o f priestsand high-class wa rriors (B rum el, 1998; Clendinnen , 1991). Therefore,wa rfa re wa s ideally the pursuit of the upper classes; elite warriors or priestsachieved valor either by capturing victims for sacrice needed fo r consump-tive-reproductive rituals or by conducting the sacrices themselves. Signi-cantly, warfare was an important means of social mobility for non-elitewarriors who excelled in combat (Clendinnen, 1991: 120). Thus high status,and the idiom of elite identity (or its aspiration) were associated with the

successful execution of violent acts. The control and circumscription ofritual violence invested A ztec nobles with the pow er and prestige of medi-at ing with the d ivine so a s to ensure the proper functioning of the cosmos(H icks, 1996: 267).


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The election of a new Aztec king provides a remarkable example ofthe importa nce of rebounding violence in the constitution of Mexicapolitical power. A fter his appointment, the tlatoani -elect had to endure four

days of fasting, bloodletting, and atonement within the precincts ofH uitzilopo chtlis pyra mid temple (C lendinnen, 1991: 779). This representsthe initial consumptive violence associated with liminality. Only aftercompletion of this liminal rite was the king considered puried and wo rthyto enter the palace. Signicantly, however, after the royal seclusion, theking launched a raid to capture sacricial victims for his installationceremony. This milita ristic nale constitutes the rebounding violence of theritual sequence. Of course a symbolic rebounding violence underlay thisrite and Aztec sacrice more generally: the extraction of tribute and theright of the tlatoani to economically and politically subjugate others.

Sacrice and elite directed ritual violence was also integral to Mayapolitical and religious systems (from P reclassic to P ostclassic times, as indi-cated iconographically and epigraphically), and a consumptive-reproduc-tive metaphysics provided the foundation of Maya cosmology. In fact, thecreation myths of both the Maya a nd Aztecs were based on a consumptive-reproductive dialectic: the sacrice of divinities made possible the creationof the cosmos and human life. The decapitation of a Maya hero and theinseminat ion of a w oman by the blood o f the disembodied head (a s detailedin the Popol Vuh ; Freidel, 1986, 1992; Schele, 1984; Schele and Miller, 1986)permitted the birth of the hero twins who w ere the architects of human lifeand the mentors of t he Maya elite. The tw ins also endured cycles of deathand rebirth, pitted aga inst the lords of the underworld in heated ba ll gamecompetitions. Elite ritual warfare, ball game contests, and sacrice re-enacted the exploits of the twins and were deemed necessary to keep theworld in motion and to perpetuate the cosmic and sociopolitical order(Freidel, 1986; Schele, 1984; Schele and Miller, 1986). Schele and Millerwrite (1986: 182):

P ermeat ing this creation myth ( Popol Vuh ) as well as many parallel mythsfrom o ther Mesoa merican peoples is the concept of a reciprocal relationshipbetw een humans and the gods. The earth a nd its creatures were createdthrough a sacri cial act of god s, and huma n beings in turn were required tostrengthen and no urish the gods. It is clear f rom classic Maya art andinscriptions, as w ell as from the Popul Vuh , that blood draw n from all partsof t he body especially from the tongue, ea rlobes, and genitals wa ssustena nce for the go ds.

Ma ya rulers engaged in ritualized wa rfa re in order to capture elite victims

for sacrice, but they a lso performed auto-sacrice or the self-consumptionof vitality in bloodletting rituals as depicted on the fa mous carved lintels ofYaxchiln in the Maya lowlands. Schele and Miller explain that blood w asthe mortar of ancient Maya society (1986: 14), and that elites let blood on


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every importa nt occasion, most nota bly in rites of passage such as the b irthof an heir or the ascension of a king (1986: 175209). Stingray spines, intblades, and obsidian perforators for bloodletting are common offerings in

elite burials, while ropes drawn through perforated wounds and blood-soaked paper in special braziers are commonly depicted in Maya elite a rt.Indeed, it is clear from the iconography that the blood-stained paper wasburned, and that the deities or ancestors were nourished and solicited bythe ascending smoke. Moreover, the consumption of vitality exercised inelite bloodletting rituals was ultimately a reproductive act, closely linkedto agricultural fertility and success. Iconographic and epigraphic evidencefrom the site of Palenque, for instance, shows bloodletting to be vital tothe production of maize and all other agricultural products (Schele andMiller, 1986: 182).

B loodletting, sacrice, a nd consumptive rites in general w ere integral toMaya rulership and dened the parameters of its power and authority(Schele and Miller, 1986: 185):

The ability t o give birth t o t he gods through ritual is an a we-inspiringconcept, for it means that ritua l was far more tha n role playing. As thebearer of the most potent blood among humankind, the king wa s the focusof tremendous power thus the pervasive scenes showing bloodletting inMa ya a rt. Through his gift of bloo d, the king brought the gods to life and

drew the pow er of t he supernatural into t he daily lives of t he Maya n.

Freidel (1986) stresses that warfare and sacrice, elements of the sameritual program, were actively con ned to t he elite and provided the frame-work for peer-polity interaction among Maya kings. Thus, institutional-ized sacrice and concomitant rebounding violence fueled elite politicalrelat ions while natura lizing social inequa lities (D emarest, 1984). Humansacrice of elites, similar in form and organization to Aztec rites (includingheart excision), was practiced among the Ma ya in the Classic and Po stclas-

sic Periods as indicated by sculptural scenes and other artistic depictions(R obicsek and H ales, 1984; Sharer , 1994: 54344).Like Moche centers, Maya cities (such as C opn, Tikal, P alenque, etc.),

the materialized icons of elite power and templates of the cosmos, func-tioned as arenas of ritual violence. The majestic and imposing steppedpyramids, as in Aztec cities, replicated the sacred landscape of the gods andfunctioned as stages of human sacrice (or auto-sacrice), enablingcommunication with the divine (Schele and Freidel, 1990; Schele andMiller, 1986). B allcourts, usually loca ted in the hea rt o f the ceremonial

precinct of Maya cities, encapsulated violent rites and were closely linkedto sacri cial ritual (G illespie, 1991: 3212, 334). Stone reliefs fro m E l Tajn,Copn, B ilbao , and C hichn It z, as w ell as evidence from Ma ya mythol-ogy, reveal that war, sacrice, death, regeneration, and kingship were


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among the centra l themes of ball game ceremonies (Freidel, 1992; G ille-spie, 1991: 319; Schele and Miller, 1986: 2437; Wilkerson, 1991).

Monte Albn, the rst centralized polity in Oaxaca, offers a striking

Mesoamerican example of the interdependence betw een early urbanizat ionand the development of po litical ideologies founded on ritual violence. Theear liest occupat ion of the site (Monte A lbn 1, 500200 B C ) is famous forcarved gneiss blocks incorpora ted into B uilding L ( Edicio de los D anzantes ), located in the southeast portion of the main plaza of theceremonial precinct (Flannery and Marcus, 1983; Marcus and Flannery,1996). These danzantes , a misnomer, actually depict mutilated andtortured victims (Figure 7). The prominent ear plugs of many the sculp-tures also suggest that victims were likely of high status. Many of theseorthostats (over 300 have been discovered) were incorporated as panelsinto B uilding L and placed possibly as risers on an immense sta ircase(Flannery and Marcus, 1983: 80). The majority, however, were unearthedthroughout the Ma in Plaza d uring the 18 eld seasons directed by A lfonsoCaso (1928).

Joyce Marcus and Kent Flannery argue that the danzantes served asvertical propaganda to project a militaristic and powerful image of theincipient elite hierarchy (Flannery and Marcus, 1983: 89; Marcus, 1992:3912). In their view, the large corpus of slain danzantes points to theinsecurity of the ruling organizat ion and the lack of institutionalized power

at Monte Albn during the earliest period following the centers synoik-ism (Marcus and Flannery, 1996). In o ther w ords, the gruesome depictionswere designed to legitimate the regime and compensate for an unconsoli-da ted pow er base chara cteristic of a chiefdom level political organizat ion.Thus the danzantes , explicit iconographic expressions of violence, areconceived simply as archaeological signiers of unstable political for-mations.

This conclusion is unconvincing, for there are numerous examples thatgraphic displays of violence were common in fully urban, state-level

societies (take the Assyrians, for example). Such a view also loses sight ofthe cultural and cosmological signicance of violence and consumptionembedded in Mesoamerican cosmovisions. Rather than serving simply asterroristic propaganda, materialized displays of violence in earlyAmerindian ceremonial centers likely reected attempts to institutionalizeand socially circumscribe sacricial ritual and consumptive-reproductivebelief systems. As with the sculptures at Cerro Sechn (also viewed asdiacritics of chiefdom level society by Marcus), the danzantes of MonteAlbn should be interpreted not a s testaments of precarious authority but

as reections of ideologies and power strategies enabling the actualdevelopment of these early centralized polities. Interestingly, genitalmutilat ion (at t he source of vita lity) is the most common form o f danzante disgurement (Figure 7). Moreover, propitiatory and generative sacrice


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wa s fundamenta l to later Z apotec cosmologies (Marcus and Flannery, 1996:19, 12930).

Interpretive reectionsThe consumptive-reproductive ideological strain present in the diversepolitico-ritual systems described above represents an important overarch-ing commonality, a commonality which seems to lie at the crux of therelationship between ritual violence and urbanism in ancient America.D espite importa nt differences in political structure, cultural representa tion,and economic organization between the various cases discussed above,iconographic displays of violence and fertility a t ma ny of the ea rliest centersin coastal Peru are highly reminiscent of the fundamental ideologicalpremise of generative violence readily appa rent in Aztec a nd Maya concep-tions of urban politics. Indeed the ultimate point of the analogies is todemonstrate how the consumptive-reproductive model allows theo reticalentre into possible processes of urbanization. Such a model offersimproved understand ing of the potentials of economic realignment, socialreconstitution, and political hierarchization fundamental to urbanization(evident in the mature urban systems described above).

The notion of sacrice, consumption for generative or reproductivegoals, is a compelling idea, perhaps a universal perception which assumed

varied permutations and differential prominence according to cultural andhistorical context (B loch, 1992). Of course, it was by no means the singularideological characteristic or raison d tr e of urbanism in the prehispanicAmericas. Nonetheless, it seems likely that this ideological concern wasvery often manipulated to facilita te consensual political ascendancy and therise of under-contested economic disparities (G odelier, 1978). Sacrice is apowerful metaphor readily homologous and transferable to economicbehavior (see above; G odelier, 1999). In o ther wo rds, the operation o furban political economies could be structured and justied in parallel

consumptive-reproductive cycles. Such a model affo rds an appreciation ofhow groups or individuals may have been in position t o subvert egalitarianprincipals and econo mic leveling mechanisms through more effective ideo-logical (consensual) tha n strictly coercive means (Ko lata , 1992). That is tosay, the sacrice or consumptive concession of groups, in terms of labor,material production, and ritual part icipation was likely justied (and evenaccepted) as reproductively benecial vis-a-vis the community or cosmosat large.

This by no means suggests that political and economic restructuring

induced by ideological manipulation of ritual violence was met withuniversal accepta nce or submission (or t hus success). The critical phase wa slikely marked by heightened competition and resistance by various groupsand socia l acto rs. B rum el (1998, 2001) demonstra tes tha t low er-class


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populat ions of Tenochtitln developed a lternate ritual progra ms in the faceof horric escalation of sacricial programs in the Aztec capital. Clearlydominant ideologies were contested bo th overtly and indirectly on va rious

fronts. The heightened exclusivity of elite-peer interaction among theMoche may have resulted in the de-emphasis of the larger societal objec-tives or mission of such ritual programs, leading to greater resentment andunrest among lower class groups. Indeed, the Moche V period, a time ofecological crisis and social conict, witnessed the wholesale rejection ofear lier religious and ideo logical programs (B awd en, 1996).

Nevertheless, it becomes readily apparent how such ideologies may havebeen developed to effectively induce individuals to surrender (sacrice)surplus as a wa y to pa cify deities and ensure the health of society surpluseswhich likely beneted the ritual specialists who engineered the ideologicalre-orientation (Hayden, 1995; 2001: 37). The metaphorical reboundingviolence evident in Aztec tribute (notions of tequitl discussed above) is astunning testament to the effective operation of this principle in thepolitical economy. The surplus labor materialized in the monuments ofearly sites such as C erro Sechn, G ara gay, Chavn, and later centers of theMoche, redolent with iconic images of violence and fertility, seems rootedin the manipulation and politicization of consumptive-reproductive beliefsystems.

Indeed, the a nalogies permit better appreciat ion of how the elevat ion of

ritual violence contributed to the production of urban landscapes andenhanced the urban experience. The construction of monumental spaceboth to showcase materialized surplus and to stage dramaturgical riteslikely resulted in spatial, geographic, economic, and sociopolitical reden-ition, which led to culturally-specic notions of the urban. These notionsconceivably revolved around conceptions of centered and de-centered,resembling categories of sacred city and hinterland (periphery). 10 O fcourse, such a perspective parallels Wheatleys (1971) exemplary centerparadigm, which is best understood as an ideal, elite-based cosmological

construct rather than a necessary depiction of reality (Couture, 2002). Thewa ys in which the elite conceived of and wished to project the urban experi-ence may have diverged from the perception and motives of lower classrural groups drawn to the center.

Wheatleys notion of a centripetal effect is compelling; the conspicuousmonuments and shocking spectacles served a s a powerful magnet dra wingpilgrims and different social groups to the center (in much the same waythat modern-day cities attract a diverse array of people with the allure ofcosmopolitan and supra-mundane experience). Although urban ideologies

of ritua l violence were idea lly the exclusive prerogative of the high elite (asevident among the Moche and Maya), such ideologies were still intendedto engage lesser-elite and lower class segments of the population (even ifa t a distance) (B rum el, 2001). The monumental visibility o f the pyramids


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and ballcourts, and the mobilization of commoner labor to construct theedi ces, tend to con rm this view. The ceremonial core which anchored thecity a nd encapsulat ed violent spectacle may ha ve been inconsequential to

the everyda y experience of lower class individuals who inhabited the denseresidential and production zones outside the monumental center of theMoche cities of C erro B lanco or Pa mpa G rande in Lamba yeque (Shimada ,1994). Nevertheless, the massive adobe huacas, visible from all sectorswithin the large Moche cities, were constant reminders of elite authorityand no doubt had the force to captivate audiences even from afar. Monu-ments as cosmological templates and their spectacular ritual activationinstilled affective, awe-inspiring experience, exaltation in Lefebvres(1991: 200) understa nding of the repressive pow er of t he monumenta l. Suchan effect was undoubtedly the source of great power and was ercelyguarded a nd controlled by elite members of the population. Idea lly, it w asthe careful balance of priva te and public spectacle, exclusion a nd inclusion,that enhanced the power of ritual theatrics; lower class groups would beeffectively enthra lled while simultaneously differentiated and marginalized.Indeed, the mystery shrouding contro lled and exclusive rites may even haveadded to their power and efcacy, thus reinforcing status differentiation.C learly, ritua l violence inuenced the urba n experience of diverse segmentsof the population in a variety of ways, often the crucial audience, and notsimply that of the high elite.

C ertainly the important challenge for a rchaeologists is to determine how the center interfaced with the rura l, and how non-elite resisted, rejected, oropportunistically embraced such ideologies. Ideologies based on ritualviolence might in certain instances have proved an effective hegemony andelite tool of domination. In other cases, they may have been peripheral tothe mot ives of pa rticular individuals and groups who pa tronized centers formore immediate commercial and social objectives. Whether or not eliteideologies were replicated, ignored, or challenged by lower class residents(B rum el, 1998, 2001) in the hinterla nd (o r rival centers) is an extremely

important q uestion bea ring on the history of specic societies. U nfortu-nately, such questions lie beyond the scope of this short article.

CONCLUSION

Sacrice and rebounding violence cannot be relegated to mere epi-phenomena simply propaganda to legitimize the real infrastructural base

of economic inequality. Sacricial ritual was inherently powerful and itscontrol and social manipulation should be considered viable strategies ofpolitical power which enabled emerging elites to secure economic ad-vantage and consolidate authority. Economic disparities were no doubt


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intensied and legitimated by the effective politicization of ritual violence.Evidence of power asymmetries originating from ritual exclusion (asexpressed architecturally) in contexts where other material diacritics of

social inequality are lacking (such as the Initial Period of central Peru)(B urger, 1992) tend s to support this hypothesis.I d o not mean to give the impression tha t the institutionalization of ritual

violence can be considered the prime mover of intensied social differen-tiation, fueling urbanization in the Andes; rather, I propose that it was animportant mechanism which enabled groups to effectively exploit pre-existing asymmetries and to take advantage of shifting economic andecological cond itions. These pre-existing a symmetries were oft en euphem-ized under the rubric of reciprocity, in which sacrice itself can be justied(B ourdieu, 1994; R ostw orowski, 1999). In o ther w ords, restricting access tothe pow er of liminal, sacricial ritual, which enabled individuals to bene tfrom a real or metaphorical rebounding violence, likely represented animporta nt means of expanding authority w hich facilita ted the extraction ofsurplus production and the consolidat ion of economic power (B loch, 1992).Cities of violence, such as the great Moche ceremonial centers (and thesurplus they accumulated), were both t he product and justication o f thesedevelopments.

In considering issues of sociopolitical change (such as urbanization),Andean a rchaeologists have a tendency to overstate structural shifts and to

ignore the relevance of human agency and power relations. The elabora-tion and mono polizat ion of violent liminal rites demonstrate how individualagents could have been in a position to induce structural changes, includ-ing shifts in power relations, religious practice, subsistence strategies,corpora te labo r organizat ion, and politico-economic systems culminating inthe development o f strati ed urban society.

Anthropologists must approach the consumptive-reproductive politicsof the Andes, for which there is substantial supporting material evidence,not simply as an interesting facet of superstructure which explains little of

the processes of sociopolitical change. Instead, we should recognize theprofound cosmological a nd structural importa nce of ritual violence and itsfundamenta l role in the history of Andea n societies.

AcknowledgementsI w ish to express my appreciation to Alan Kolata , Michael D ietler, Tom D illehay,Kathy Morrison, and Connie Hsu Swenson for their excellent and instructivecomments on the rst drafts of this article. Of course, any factual or conceptualerror is entirely my own. I also would like to thank Lynn Meskell and the anony-

mous reviewers of the article, whose critiques and insights were instrumental inimproving t he ma nuscript.


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Notes1 There are problems with bo th functiona list a nd orthodo x Marxist

interpretat ions of ritual violence, and o f human sacri ce more speci cally.

Michael Harners protein hypothesis (1977) represents one of the moreobjectionab le functiona list explana tions, whereby ritual violence is equatedwith ecological ada pta tion: he proposed tha t sacrice and canniba lism servedto alleviate prot ein de ciencies among the Aztec. Shelburne Cook (1946) alsoargued that sacrice acted as an effective demographic control, maintainingpopulations in the B asin of Mexico below carrying-capacity. Even ardentcultural ecologists and ma terialists have rejected these part icular theories. O nthe o ther hand, Ma rxist theo rists usually perceive the institution o f sacrice a sa cynical ideological device designed to terrorize, intimida te, or ra lly thesubord inate classes to fanat ically part icipate in their own o ppression w hile

strengthening political bond s between elites (Brumel, 1998; Conra d a ndD ema rest, 1984). Thus ritua l violence is of ten understoo d as epiphenomena l, afacet of superstructure that arises a posteriori in response to initia l shifts in theeconomic infrastructure or ma terial foundat ion underlying various socialforma tions. Sacrice as fa lse consciousness, acting to obscure the realities ofinequa lity (in other w ords, as an ideological practice described by Ma rx inG erman I deology or Capital ), may have credibility in certa in historicalcontexts, but it inadeq uately accounts for the more nuanced and active roleplayed b y sacralized violence in Amerindian political history.

2 Claims of and to function (causality, purpose, meaning) lie at the heart of

ideology, and to the conscious negotia tion of pow er more generally. Rarely dobelief systems (whether myth, political doctrine, or even anthropo logicaltheory) tra nscend a functiona list orienta tion: they canno t escape the premiseof how phenomena wo rk, idea lly or practically. In considering his de nition ofideology, Ho bsbaw m labels Marx the rst structural-functionalist (Morris,1987: 40). Although this is questionable, Marxs notion that ideologyfunctioned to ma intain social cohesion w hile legitimating oppressiondemonstra tes interesting theoret ical commonalities with functiona listprinciples. This politicized functionalism underlying Marx and Engels notionof ideology (as a to ol of bo th the dominant and o ppressed) is a va luable

concept and contrasts with the positivist functiona lism underscoring neo-D urkheimian thought.3 This intersystemic repet ition o f cosmic structure is a common theme in

Andean wo rld views (Z uidema, 1992). Huaca is a Q uecha word which refersto ritually charged entities such as d ivinities, mountains, mummy bundles,pyra mida l mounds, etc. (Salomon and U rioste, 1991: 1617). Sacri ceestablishes reciprocal bo nds betw een huaca s and devotees (B astien, 1978;G rif ths, 1996: 126, 201), and offerings of llamas, coca leaves, guinea pits, etc.were expected to b e reciprocated w ith good ha rvests and divine favor.

4 It should be noted, how ever, tha t Ma uss did indeed make a connectionbetw een gifting and sacri ce in The G ift : The purpose of destruction bysacrice is precisely tha t it is an act of giving tha t is necessarily reciprocated(Mauss, 1990: 16). R eecting on Ma uss w ork, G odelier notes tha t Ma ussclearly indicates . . . the articulation between gift-giving and the practice ofcontra ctual sacrice t o t he gods a nd spirits. Taking his reasoning a step


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further, we see more clearly w hy, in these social and menta l worlds, men whogive more than they ha ve been given or who give so much that t hey can neverbe repaid, ra ise themselves above other men and a re something like gods, or a tleast they strive to be (G odelier, 1999: 2930).

5 Icono graphy of violence and preda to ry ferocity includes carvings ofdecapita ted heads (similar to Cerro Sechn) from Sechin Alto (C asma) andChupacoto (H uaylas); fa nged creatures in clay relief a t Moxeke (Casma);fa nged clay sculptures at P unkur in the Nepena Valley; a ca rved steatite bo wlof a spider with ingested tro phy heads from Limoncarro (Jeq uetepequeValley); beaut ifully carved stone stele of fanged beings, one of w hich holds atrophy head, at K untur Wasi in the mounta inous headwa ters of theJeq uetepeque Valley; and a likely trophy-head ceramic vessel fromShillacot o of the Koto sh religious tra dition (the upper Hua llaga ) (see B urger,1992).

6 The iconographic and a rchaeological evidence in bot h Mesoamerica a nd theAnd es reveals that elites and divinities were associat ed w ith ferociouspreda to rs (B enson, 1998; B urger, 1992). R eligious specia lists experiencedtra nsformat ive sta tes with the aid of psychotropic substances, meta morphosinginto fa nged felines in order to intercede with the divine (Jo ralemon a ndSharon, 1993; R eichel-D olmat off , 1975). Since human or anima l sacrice o ftenaccompa nied this process (sacri ce being the vehicle of communion), it followstha t powerful shama ns, who presided over a cts of consumption (B loch, 1992),wo uld be associated w ith jagua rs and o ther fanged creat ures, the ultimat epredat ors and consumers of esh and vita lity in the nat ural world. Ferociouscreatures were emblems of pow er and authority throughout t he Americas(B enson, 1998; C oe, 1972; Kan, 1972). Ma ya elites, for instance, were direct lyassocia ted with jaguars (Freidel, 1986: 100; Schele, 1984; Schele and Freidel,1990; Schele a nd Miller, 1986: 252).

7 This is not t o suggest tha t pow er began a nd ended w ith ritual performance(contra G eertz, 1980), but rather tha t ritual de ned Moche authority structuresfa cilitating fo rmidable social control (Shimada , 1994). Although the de nitionof power is contextua lly contingent (as transformative capacity, coercion, etc.),in this art icle, I emphasize a singular mea ning: the ability to cont rol the labo r,resources, and activities of individua ls despite possible resista nce (Ma nn, 1986:

6). Of course, individuals can be invested w ith considerable authority but lackeffective pow er in extracting economic surplus or d irecting social activity(Lincoln, 1994). At the same time, great coercive pow er can b e wielded b ythose who lack autho rity and ideological legitimacy. Manipulation of ritualproduction a nd sacralized violence was instrumental in negotiat ing authority,which differentially empowered a gents according to historical and culturalcontext (Kelly a nd K aplan, 1990). The pow er of shamans in Tupi-G uara nisocieties of the Ama zon varied from those who comma nded high prestige, butnot much else, to those who exploited their prestige (as documentedhistorically) so as to exercise considerable economic and political dominance

(Viveiros de Castro, 1992: 2623, 267). Nevertheless, I also stress that thedramat urgical effects, timeless quality, and revered character of ritual oftenendowed of ciants with a n innate a nd distinct potency (informing butanalytically separate from authority or ideology) which often inuencedpolitical relations.


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8 Altho ugh lack of space prohibits a more extensive compa rison, it isnotew orthy that the Mississippian and A nasazi cultures of North Americawere a lso ma rked by a symbiosis of intensied ritual violence, hierarchization,and t he construction of monumental centers. Numerous decapita tedindividua ls in Mo und 72 at Caho kia in the American B ott om (AD 11001300)(Pa uketat , 1997: 346), and art ifacts recovered f rom prominent mo und centersthroughout the So utheast exhibiting w arrior a nd sacri cial imagery (McCaneOC onnor, 1995: 8393) a ttest t o the pa n-American bread th o f t hisphenomenon. Purported evidence of ritualistic cannibalism at Chaco Canyon,New Mexico (AD 9001200: Pueblo B onito, P easco B lanco, Small House,var ious out liers, etc.) (Turner a nd Turner, 1999) provide a dditiona l suchexamples. Osteo logical evidence for huma n sacrice and canniba lismaccompanied by a sacri cial pantheon similar t o the A ztec (Xipe Totec,Quetzalcoa tl, etc.) also chara cterize the great city of Teotihuacan in the Valleyof Mexico (AD 100600) (Turner a nd Turner, 1999: 4215).

9 The sacri ce of chosen children in the Inka C apa cocha certa inly differed inmeaning and social signi cance from the ca pture and ritua l execution of eliterivals in Mo che political systems. P ropitiation rites involving the sacrice o fllamas and guinea pigs were a lso prevalent in Andea n society at t he time ofthe conquest and w ere unquestionably understood and interpreted in waysdistinct f rom ceremonies of human sacri ce (C obo, 1990: 11314). The right toperform ritual homicide, the ultimate testament o f pow er in the a rbitration oflife and dea th, wa s no doubt a ceremonia l spectacle divorced from a ll others.Moreo ver, ritual violence assumed the fo rm of mo re immediate reproductivegoa ls such as providing deceased kings attendant s in the a fterlife or curing asick Inka (Cobo, 1990: 112). Sacriced female retainers (presumably royal)secure a prominent place in the Chim ciudad ela (C onra d, 1982; Kolata ,1990), the hallmark of elite urban a rchitecture at the capita l Cha n Chan in theMoche Valley. The victims were found interred in burial pla tfo rmssurrounding deceased kings. Cert ainly these C him rites, inuencing thede nition of urban space at Chan C han, cannot simply be forced into the sameexplanato ry framewo rk as Moche a nd Ma ya elite ritual wa rfare. Nevertheless,the emic functionalism evident in reproductive gain t hrough consumptivesacrice is a t hread common to many forms of ritualized violence, including

the a forement ioned examples. The a nalogies presented in this sectionunderscore t he impact of this ideological principle in the political systems ofdispara te urban tra ditions in the Americas.

10 For insta nce, B urger explains tha t the wo rd Chavn, the name of the premierhighland center of the E arly H orizon, may have derived from the Q uechuaword chawpin , mea ning in t he center (B urger, 1992: 128). Tiwa naku, thegreat A ltiplano city of the Middle H orizon, was also referred to a s taypicalla ,the stone in the center from which humankind and sociopolitical hierarchyorigina ted (Ko lat a , 1993: 889). The city o f C uzco was likewise envisioned a sthe navel of the universe and a template of Inka rule, social order, and

politica l ascenda ncy (Z uidema , 1964, 1990). Certa inly, these not ions refer toLa te H orizon perceptions, but they may have had some relation to how socio-spat ial conceptions changed with the rise of early centers.


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